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The Politics of Fear

Everybody has fears, some are irrational. Some people get so consumed by their fears that they become seriously ill. Some people enjoy fear, others use it. Politicians master it.

Have you ever wondered what happened to all the good news stories? Have you stopped to consider how we always seem to be fighting someone, somewhere? How we are always under threat? How the threat level never seems to drop back to Pink and Fluffy?

One of the easiest buttons to press is the big red one marked Fear. Movies can do it, books can do it, roller coasters do it, even teeny tiny spiders can do it. And politicians love to do it.

Scotland is too small

The NHS is doomed

Oil is running out

Yer pension’s knackered

It’s £7 a pint in Norway

Asda will put up its prices

Banks will leave

Pears Morgan wont leave.

Fear, time and time again. It’s a buy one get one free deal, because it always brings its wee pal Doubt. Could we? Should we? Better no, eh? Just to be safe.

Often we can see it coming a mile away, recognise it immediately for what it is. Dismiss it, laugh it off, reassure ourselves with facts and figures. But the 2 for 1 can get you. When your not paying attention, when you think it’s all over, Doubt is still there, keeping a foot in the back door, ready to let Fear back in.

Whether you know it or not, whether you see it or not, that is how they control us. They don’t have to get all of us, they don’t care about the single voices that cry out in the dark “I know it’s you, and I am not afraid!”, because if they get enough, if they get 51%, or whatever magic number they need, then they have won.

There is a solution. Take the fear and the doubt, and turn it in to something else. Get fuckin furious, because just under the surface, right beside Fear, is primal Rage. Scream at the TV, the newspaper, the PC, vent the whole might of your furious anger at these bastards who want you to cower. Stand up and shout FUCK THAT! I’m no feart of the likes of you, ya slimy wee bastard, or anything you say. Turn it around and fire it right back at them because they want you back off, they want you to stand down, they want you to surrender your power to them cos you’re too piss yer pants scared to stand up and do what needs to be done.

I’ve been scared, I’ve been scared when there was no food in the fridge and hungry weans looking at me for answers. I’ve been feart when the wife was in the hospital and there was no doctor to look at her fer hours and hours. I’ve been terrified when the baliffs were at the door, not of them, but of seeing my family out on the street.

Well Westminster, you’ve done it this time, I’m fuming, and you will never, ever be able to scare me again, cos I wont fucking let you!